Česko Slovensko má talent

Česko Slovensko má talent (ČSMT) is the Czech-Slovak version of the "Got Talent" franchise that is in some +60 countries. 

ČSMT first aired on 29 August 2010 and the tenth season finished airing a couple of months ago.

One of the moderators is Czech and the other is Slovak.  Both Czech and Slovak are spoken by the moderators, judges, and contestants.  

From what I understand, back in the days of Czechoslovakia, the evening news used to always be broadcast in both languages.  The first half was in Czech and the second half was in Slovak.  This was one of the ways that pretty much helped everyone to understand each other.  While Czech and Slovak are pretty close, the younger generations today, in both Czechland and Slovakia, have a harder time understanding the other language.  I wonder how many other shows there are out there that are broadcast in both languages.  

Here's a short clip from season 8 that I found out on YouTube.  The contestant plays clips from songs in several languages and holds up cards with similar sounding but incorrect lyrics.  I think it's pretty funny.

©TV Prima

Nikola Kusendová is a 15-year old from Slovakia who just won season 10.  Here's her winning performance.  

©TV Prima

More Czech Tongue Twisters

Today is International Tongue Twister Day so I figured that I'd share a few Czech jazykolamy.

The most famous Czech tongue twister is:

Strč prst skrz krk.  
Put your finger in your neck/throat.

Not a long one but the challenge is that there are no vowels.

Šel pštros s pštrosicí a pštrosáčty pštrosí ulicí do pštrosína.
The male ostrich went with the female ostrich and the baby ostriches along the ostrich street to the ostrich house.

©Hezký Čtení Český

These are particularly difficult because of all of the ř's.

Kmotře Petře, nepřepřete mi toho vepře, jak mi, kmotře Petře, toho vepře přepepříte, tak si toho přepepřeného vepře sám sníte.

Godfather Petr, don't pepper that pig for me as you, Godfather Petr, pepper the pig you will the peppered pig yourself.

©Hezký Čtení Český

Tři tisíce tři sta třicet tři stříbrných stříkaček stříkalo přes tři tisíce tři sta třicet tři stříbrných střech.
Three thousand three hundred thirty three silver quails sprayed over three thousand three hundred thirty three silver roofs.

©Hezký Čtení Český

Byl jednou jeden Řek a ten mi řek, abych mu řek, kolik je v Řecku řeckých řek. A já mu řek, že nejsem Řek, abych mu řek, kolik je v Řecku řeckých řek.

There once was a Greek and he asked me to tell him how many Greek rivers there are in Greece.  And I told him that I am not Greek, how could I tell him how many Greek rivers there are in Greece.

©Hezký Čtení Český

European Day of Languages 2022

Today was the 21st anniversary of the European Day of Languages.  

It was an initiative of the Council of Europe, and together with the European Commission, it has been celebrated every year since 2001. 

Here are the top ten most spoken native languages in Europe.

1. Russian with 160 million native speakers.  It's the official language in four countries and commonly spoken in former Soviet republics.
2. German has around 97 million native speakers.  While it's the second most spoken language in Europe it is the most spoken language in the European Union.
3. French has around 71,5 million native speakers with almost 20% of people in the EU able to speak it as a 1st or 2nd language.  French is the second most-taught language in the world after English.
4. Italian has about 65 million native speakers in Europe.
5. English as only about 63 million native speakers but once you leave Euroland that number jumps up to more than 1 billion making in the most spoken native language in the world.  
6. Spanish has only 47 million native speakers in Europe but worldwide there are almost 493 million native speakers making the world's second most spoken native language after English.
7. Polish has about 38,5 million native speakers.
8. Ukrainian has about 32,6 million native speakers.  While the majority are located in Ukraine, you can hear Ukrainian spoken across all of Europe with so many refugees from Russia's invasion of the country.
9. Romanian has about 24 million native speakers if you include Moldovan which is pretty much the same thing.
10. Dutch comes in 10th place with 22 million native speakers.

Czech comes in 15th place after Turkish, Greek, Hungarian, and Swedish.  Czech only has 10,6 million native speakers and it's only an official language here in Czechland.  

Я за Україну. Я за Україною. Слава Україні  Stojím za Ukrajinou!  I stand with Ukraine. 

Starobrno

Pivovar Starobrno, the Old Brno Brewery is located in here in Brno.  It was built as a successor to an earlier brewery founded in 1325 as part of a convent.  It didn't take the name of Starobrno Brewery until the second half of the 19th century. 

The date of 1872 is on the beer label which means they are now celebrating their 150th anniversary.

In 2009, Starobrno merged with the Royal Brewery of Krušovice and it is now owned by Heineken.

It's main four beers are:

• Staré Brno - a pale 10° draught beer with 4% alcohol 
• Starobrno Medium - a pale 11° lager with 4,7% alcohol
• Starobrno Drak - a pale 12° lager with 5,3% alcohol
• Starobrno Unfiltered - an unfiltered. 12° lager with 5% alcohol

Most people don't understand the degree thing with beer.  It doesn't indicate the percentage of alcohol.  Brewers use it as a measurement to track the density of certain ingredients.  10 degree beer is around 3,5% alcohol, 12 degree is usually around 4,2% alcohol and 15 degree beers are dark beers.  So the degrees don't indicate the alcohol percentage but the higher the degree the stronger the beer.

Every year for zelený čtvrtek, the brewery produces a batch of green beer.

In March 2020, the brewery released three new craft style beers.

• Indian Pale Lager - IPL - a pale lager with 5% alcohol
• American Pale Ale - APA - a top-fermented beer with 5% alcohol
• RED - a cherry-flavoured beer with 3,6% alcohol

I haven't tried any of the new craft beers.  My favourite Starobrno is the nefiltrovaný.

Here are a couple of commercials that I found out on YouTube.

Here's a commercial that they ran in Hantec, the local Brno dialect, along with Czech subtitles so that the rest of the country could understand.

New Things in Brno

I've been in Czechland for just over 13 years now.  Sometimes people are surprised that I've lived in the country this long.  The typical understanding is the foreigners (expats) come and eventually foreigners leave.   

The other thing that often surprises people is that the whole time I've only lived in Brno.  My entire Czechland adventure has taken place here in Moravia.  I love this city.  There's always something going on here or something new to discover.

Yesterday, I took the day off and Kája and I spent the day together.  Here's three "new" things I found in the city.

1.  The BRNO sign by the town hall.  It isn't exactly new but I hadn't seen it yet.  

2.  Štetl Fest is coming in September.  It's a multi-genre festival of Jewish culture and history.  It's the largest festival of Jewish culture in the country.  I assume that it's in participation with the coming MEHRIN Moravian Jewish Museum but that's just my assumption.

Štetl comes from the Yiddish word for a "small town."  Usually it refers to a small town with a large strong Jewish presence.  

3.  Brno has an Embassy of Independent Belarusian Culture.  Back in 2020, I know that Brno supported the protestors in Belarus.  But with everything going on at the time with Covid, I missed that the embassy opened on 17 November 2020.

It's not a traditional embassy.  It was set up by the Centre for Experimental Theatre and it focuses on informing the public about what's going on in Belarus and supporting cultural activities.

It's probably even more important to understand what's going on there now given that Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko allowed the country to be a staging ground and launching point for Russian's invasion of Ukraine.

Я за Україну. Я за Україною. Слава Україні  Stojím za Ukrajinou!  I stand with Ukraine. 

Officially Passed!

I received my results a few weeks ago that I passed my B1 language exam.  Well, now I have officially passed because today I received my certificate.  I now have evidence that I passed the exam.  Hurá! 

It actually arrived, yesterday, on my birthday.  The best present ever!

Now I can start getting together all of the paperwork I need in order to apply for Czech citizenship.  I just need to make sure that I don't lose the certificate in the mean time.

No More Mandatory -ová

I've written before that Czech names can be a complex thing.  One of the key differences is that surnames don't always match up.  Due to some patriarchal rules for names, and the lovely Czech grammar that treats surnames like adjectives, a husband will have a different last name than the wife.  A mother will not have the same last name as her son while a father and daughter will also have different names.  

Mr. Novotný and his sons will be called Novotný while his wife and daughters will be called Novotná.  That's because Novotný is the grammatically masculine version and Novotná is the grammatically feminine version. 

Most of the time, the feminine suffix is -ová.  So Mr. Novák and Mrs. Nováková.  The -ová is so common that the Czech press adds -ová to women's names automatically.  For example, German Chancellor Angela Merkel is written as Angela Merkelová.

Personally, I still see it as odd that a parent and child don't have the same last name.  Czechs aren't the only ones to do this.  It's the same in all of the Slavic countries, and I believe the Baltic countries, too.

Until 2004, every woman in Czechland was required to adopt the feminine version of her husband's last name.  There were few exceptions allowed in order to avoid the whole -ová thing.  Foreign women marrying foreign men in Czechland were exempt.  Czech women who married a foreigner whose name ended in a vowel were also off the hook.  Czech citizens with permanent residence abroad or women who had plans to live abroad could also request not to get the -ová.  I don't know how much but there was a fee for this.

A proposed amendment to the Registry Act made it past the Chamber of Deputies, 91-to-33, that would give women the right to utilise the masculine version of her husband's name.  The Senate had 30 days to debate the topic and if passed it would go to the President to be signed in to law.  Well, it passed.  So most likely in January 2022, women can choose to take her husband's masculine-form surname.  So both spouses will have the same last name.

Grammatically the -ová indicates ownership.  So a woman either belongs to her husband or a daughter belongs to her father.  Some view this as kind of sexist and archaic.  Others just view it is tradition and important for Czech grammar.

In Czech every noun is either masculine, feminine or neutral.  So a last name needs to be either masculine or feminine.  The argument is that if you can't decline a last name correctly then this could lead to miscommunication.  

I have a Czech colleague who took her Czech husband's (masculine) last name a couple of years ago.  I need to ask her how she did it.  I do believe that their daughter has the -ová form.  She's said that it really hasn't been a problem other than a few times on the telephone when people stumble a bit thinking the last name is an -ová when it isn't.

A few things that I found out...

• The mandatory -ová thing is relatively new.  It only became mandatory in 1945.
• Slovakia allowed women to decide on the -ová suffix several years ago.  The vast majority of women still go with the feminine form.
• Poland also gave women the right to decide on the -ová suffix a few years.  It wasn't that disruptive.
• Men can take their wive's name but they only get the masculine version.  There's no -ová for men.
• If someone wants to change a surname then there is a 1000 Kč (~$47) fee.  The fee is waived following a divorce or a sex change.
• A person can change their first name if the name is "derogatory, eccentric, ridiculous, distorted, or foreign".  The fee is 100 Kč (~$5).

I get how this all applies to women when they marry.  I don't know if the -ová thing will still apply when a child is born.  Can the parents now decide if their newborn daughter will take the -ová form or not?

I passed!

I passed!  Happy happy joy joy I passed.  What a relief that I passed my B1 Czech language exam on the second try.  The results are supposed to be available 30 days after the exam.  I took the exam on 4. June and with the 5th and 6th of July being public holidays I figured that I would not get the results until next week.  Obviously I was quite happy that they were available today and even more so because I passed.

When you don't pass the exam, they provide you with the breakdown of your scores in the four areas.  However, when you pass all they tell you is that you passed.  No scores are given.  

I wrote an e-mail to ÚJOP asking for my scores and they replied back with my marks.  Overall I did better this time than I did last time.  My overall score last time was 61% and this time I scored 65,5%.  

On the the reading comprehension I scored 80% which was way better then the 68% I received last time.

On the written section I scored 60% again.  Right on the border but I'll take it.

I didn't do as well on the speaking section as I did before.  Last time I scored 76% and this time I dropped to 70%.

It was the listening comprehension that did me in last time.  Previously I only scored 40% but this time I scored 65%.  I got 13 questions right which is exactly what I needed to pass this portion of the exam.  Had I missed just one more question then I would need to take the exam for a third time.  Oh the shame if I had to take it a third time.  

I still say that the listening comprehension portion of the exam is unnecessarily difficult.  It is more of a short-term memorisation exercise than anything else.  But it's over and done with.  I should receive my certificate in a couple of weeks.  Now I can start thinking about all of the paperwork I need in order to apply for Czech citizenship.

Update:  I received my certificate on my birthday!

Czech Verb Prefixes

I'm still keeping up with my Czech while I wait for the results of my B1 exam.  Fingers crossed that I pass it.  I need B1 in order to apply for citizenship but I'll keep studying until I reach the B2 level which is the level required for someone to study at university.  I'm not planning on attending uni but I want to get my Czech to this level.  However, I have zero intentions of taking the B2 exam.  I'll be happy enough to pass my B1 exam.

Learning Czech verbs is both easy and a pain in the arse.  They are easy in that there are only three verb tenses - past, present, and future.  The past tense gets a little more difficult than in English because in Czech the past tense acts like an adjective so it has to agree in number and gender.

It gets way more complicated with aspect which is basically a concept of completeness.  Since verbs are either imperfective or perfective it means that Czechs use two different verbs where English just uses one verb but with lots of different tenses.

In English we use different prepositions to change the meaning of a verb.  For example, there's a difference between to to, to go into, to go out of, to go around, to go through, etc.  Czechs also use prepositions but there are also different prefixes which can change the meaning of the verb.

The different prefixes are do-, o-, od-, na-, po-, pod-, pře-, před-, roz-, u-, v-, vy-, z-, za-.  If you learn the meanings of the various prefixes it can help you guess the meaning of the verb.  This is doesn't help 100% of the time but the prefixes can point you in the right direction.

Jít = to go (on foot)

Přijít = to come; to arrive

Odejít = to leave; to depart

Přejít = to go over; to pass over

Rozjít = to break up

Najít = to find

Pojít = to die

Předjít = to prevent

Vyjít = to go out; to exit

Zajít = to go around

Language Exam Take #2

Yesterday was my second attempt at the B1 language exam that I need in order to apply for Czech citizenship.  Last time I failed the listening comprehension portion of the exam, by 3 questions, I had to retake the entire exam again.  

I was up in the air about when I would try to retake it.  Do I give myself a few more months to really focus on listening communication while prolonging the agony of having to face the exam again in the future?  Or do I try to take it again right  away?  In the end I decided to take it as soon as I could.  

Due to COVID-19 there were no Saturday exams so I had to take a day off from work to sit for the exam on a Friday.  Fortunately, this time I could take the exam in Brno at Masaryk University.  The language exam cost 3.700 Kč ($170).

The exam format was the same as last time but with different questions.  First came the reading comprehension test followed by the dreaded listening comprehension test.  The listening portion was unnecessarily complicated.  It's more of a test of how much you can remember in a short period of time than an actual listening comprehension test but what can you do?  

Then came the written exam.  The main essay I chose was on whether men make better bosses than women.  Following the written exam, I had a two-hour break before I had to take the speaking test.  The individual speaking test was easy and for the role play I was partnered with a Russian girl and we had to plan some elective education for our colleagues.  

I was finished with everything by 17:30 but I was completely drained.  Fortunately some of the fellas were meeting up at Honza's place to grill out and have a few drinks.  The timing could not have been more perfect.  Now I just have to wait another 30 days to get my exam results.  

Overall I feel better this time than I did last time.  Maybe because I had a better idea of what to expect.  I still feel nervous about the listening portion.  I hope that this section doesn't cause me to fail the entire exam again.  Fingers crossed!

Update:  I passed!

Exam Results

I received the results from my exams today.  The results were posted online this morning.  They were serious about having to wait 30 days for the results.

First the good news.  I passed the Czech Citizenship test.  That wasn't a surprise.  It was 30 questions in 30 minutes and I finished it about about 10 minutes.  I didn't receive a score, just that I passed.

Now the bad news.  I failed the B1 Czech language test.  There were four parts to the exam - reading comprehension, listening comprehension, writing, and speaking.  Overall, you have to score 60% in order to pass.  I scored 61%.  So technically I had enough points to pass the exam.

However, you can't score below 60% in any of the four areas.  This is what did me in.

Reading comprehension - I scored 68%.  Better than I thought I did.

Writing - 60%.  On the borderline but cool.

Speaking - I scored 76%.  Not bad at all.

Listening comprehension - I only scored 40%.  This is where I truly bombed the exam.  If I had only gotten 3 more correct answers on the listening section then I would have passed the entire exam.  

Unfortunately, it didn't turn out that way.  So now I have to take the entire exam all over again.  Not the citizenship test because I did pass that one.  But I now have to retake the entire language test.  Plus pay another 3.700 Kč ($170) to sit for the exam again.  

Not quite what I was hoping for.  I have friends who passed this exam and can't really speak Czech.  At least my Czech is way better than theirs but I'm the one who didn't pass.  I probably need a couple of days to get over the disappointment and then figure out when I can take the test again.  Hopefully I won't have to wait too long.

Update:  I received my certificate for passing the citizenship test.

Update:  I passed the language exam on my second attempt.

Foreign Languages

I wrote before that English is the most common spoken language across the EU.  That's even after Brexit with the UK no longer being part of the EU.  About 44% of people in the EU can speak English.  Roughly 36% can speak German, 29% speak French, 18% speak Italian and 17% speak Spanish.  When the UK was in the EU, 13% of EU citizens were native English speakers but now only 1% of the EU are native English speakers.  Clearly English is still the dominant foreign language across the EU.

https://jakubmarian.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/most-spoken.jpg

In Slovakia, Czech is the most spoken second language followed by English and German.  While here in Czechland, the most spoken second language is English, followed by Slovak and then German.  

Back in the days of communism Russian was the mandatory second language taught behind the Iron Curtain.  Except for Romania where French was more popular because (a) both are Romance languages and (b) Romania always tried to show how independent it was from the Soviet Union.  But after things opened up English became the foreign language to learn.

In Czechland, around 40% of job offers require both Czech and a foreign language.  More than half of these require English followed by German, French, Italian, and Dutch.  

From an economics perspective more people here need to be able to speak a foreign language.  Czechia is a small export-driven country and let's face it, with only 10,5 million people, most people aren't trying to learn Czech.  Which means that Czechs need to speak the language of whom they're selling to.  While German is popular I'm surprised that overall more people don't speak it here.  Especially given since almost half of the country borders a German-speaking country - Germany and Austria.  Plus, Germany is the country's main trade partner. 

My Exams

I finally took my exams today after they'd been cancelled twice due to Covid-19.  I've gotta' say that I'm not feeling great about it.  So here's how things went.

The exams were given by ÚJOP UK which is the Institute of Language and Vocational Training of Charles University.  I got there a bit early and waited for them to call my name.  I had to show my passport, my negative Covid test and they took my temperature.

I was in a group of seven people.  There was me (American), two Russian girls, a Romanian woman, a Ukrainian guy, an Arab guy, and a chap who I think may have been either Serbian or Bosian.  We all went upstairs and one by one we had to show our passports and permanent residency ID to the Czech Police who marked our names off of a list.  After I the police check, I had to take two steps and show my passport to a girl who marked my name off of another list.  I was given a red wrist band and a piece of paper with bar code stickers.  I then went to the testing room.

In the room I sat at the assigned desk.  Pencils and erasers were provided.  We were allowed to have a bottle of water and that was it.  We had to remove our watches and definitely no mobile phones.  Before we began the exams, a police officer came in check our passports.  Then the test administrator checked our bar codes.  The first test given was the Czech Citizenship test.  The exam was 30 questions in 30 minutes.  I know that I aced it.  I finished the exam in about 10 minutes.  Definitely a good start.  

There was one room where we were allowed to go to in between exams.  No one was allowed to leave the building.  Smokers were not allowed to go outside for a cigarette.  After a short break it was then time to take the B1 language test.

First up was the reading comprehension test which lasted 50 minutes.  This didn't go so well.  Or at least I don't think that I did very well.  After the exam we had a short break in the one room we could go relax in and then it was back to the room for the next test.

A police office came in and checked our passports.  The administrator then checked our bar codes.  Next up was the listening comprehension test.  We had to listen to recordings and then answer questions for 30 minutes.  It sucked!  This part of the exam really did not go well.     

Then a short break followed by another passport check and another bar code check.  Next was the written exam which lasted for an hour.  I think that I did ok on this part but we'll see.

After this we were released and could leave the building.  I had 90 minutes before I had to be back for the speaking test.  I went back to my hotel for a break.  I was feeling thoroughly defeated.  I'd waited for a year to take this exam and I had bombed it.  I went back for the speaking test which was the final section.  I was paired with the Romanian woman.  We had entered the testing room and had our IDs checked again. The speaking test lasted for about 15 minutes.  Each of us had to introduce ourselves and give a bit of background information.  I was given the choice of taking about either shopping or employment.  I chose shopping and they showed me a photograph and I had to talk about it.

Then we were given the topic to plan a trip so we had to do a role play.  After 15 minutes we were told that the test is over.  We can check our results online in 30 days.  I know that I bombed the reading and listening parts of the test.  The speaking could have gone better but we'll see.  I have friends who have passed this test and everyone has told me that they were sure they had failed but ended up passing in the end.  I hope that this is the case but I'm pretty sure that I failed it.  Now all I can do is wait a month for the results and let's see when I will be able to schedule a do-over.  At least I got a trip to Prague out of this.

Update: Exam results.

Update:  I received my certificate for passing the citizenship test.

Fingers Crossed

My exams are coming up so "fingers crossed" that I pass.  In English, you put the middle finger across the index finger to "hope for the best", "wish luck" or to just show support.  You usually do it with both hands but one hand will work too.

Of course, when you only use one hand then it could be that you are telling a lie.  But let's focus on wishing luck.

In Czechland and Slovakia you don't cross your fingers.  Držet palce is the equivalent of "fingers crossed" but here it means "to hold your thumbs."  

Držím palce - I'm holding my thumbs

Budu ti držet palce - I will hold my thumbs for you

When I send an SMS (text message) I still have to use the "fingers crossed" emoji because there isn't a "holding thumbs" version.

German speakers also hold their thumbs.  You'll hear drücken die Daumen in Germany, Austria, and Switzerland.

In Sweden it's hålla tummarna, in Poland it's trzymając kciuki and there are thumb holding equivalents in Slovenia, Croatia, Bulgaria, and Russia.  Even the Afrikaans speakers in South Africa "hold thumbs tightly" with duim vashou. 

It doesn't matter to me if it's "fingers crossed" or "held thumbs".  At this point I'll take all of the luck that I can get. 

Language Difficulty

I'm headed to Prague on Friday to take my Czech citizenship test and my B1 language test.  I'm not worried at all about the citizenship test but I'm nervous about the language test.  Fingers crossed that it all goes well.

A common question I get is "how hard is it to learn Czech"?  The short answer is that it's hella' hard!  There are lots of reasons why Czech can be difficult to learn.  Some people take pride that "Czech is one of the hardest languages in the world to learn".  While there are times that it feels that way, there are way more difficult languages to learn.

The Defense Language Institute (DLI), in California, is the language school where the U.S., trains all of its military linguists.  Students study a foreign language full time, for seven hours a day, five days a week, with 3-4 hours of homework every day.  Completion of a basic course is basically more or less the equivalent of the CEFR B1 level.

The length of the course depends on the difficulty of the language.  All languages are rated from 1 to 4 with category 4 languages being the most difficult to learn for a native English speaker.

Category I languages have 26 weeks of instruction.  This includes French, Italian, Portuguese, and Spanish.

Category II languages take 34 weeks.  This includes German, Romanian, and Indonesian.

Category III languages take 48 weeks.  All of the Slavic languages are 3's.  So Czech, Polish, Russian, Ukrainian, Bulgarian, and Serbian/Croatian.  Plus Farsi, Hebrew, Hungarian, Greek, Albanian, Hindi, Tagalog, Thai, Turkish, Urdu, Uzbek and Vietnamese.

Category IV languages take 64 weeks to complete the basic course.  This includes Arabic, Mandarin Chinese, Japanese, Korean, and Pashto.

I grew up during the Cold War and when I was in the military they still taught people how to speak German, Czech, and Polish.  These languages aren't even taught there anymore.  

The Foreign Service Institute (FSI) is the language school for the U.S. Department of State where American diplomats get their language training.  FSI courses have 25 hours of class each week with 3-4 hours of homework every day.  FSI has five difficulty categories.

Category I languages last 23-24 weeks which equates to 575-600 hours of training.  Category I languages are the Romance and Germanic languages, except for German.  So Afrikans, Dutch, Norwegian, Swedish, French, Italian, Portuguese, Romanian, and Spanish.

The only category II language is German.  The course lasts for 30 weeks which is 750 hours of study.

Category III languages last for 36 weeks (900 hours) and include Indonesian, Malaysian, and Swahili.

Category IV languages take 44 weeks to complete which is 1100 hours of training.  This is pretty much the same as the DLI Category III languages.  All of the Slavic languages - Czech, Slovak, Polish, Russian, Bulgarian, Serbian, Croatian, Macedonian, and Ukrainian.  The Baltic languages Estonian, Latvian, and Lithuanian.  Plus Albanian, Armenian, Azeri, Burmese, Farsi, Finnish, Georgian, Greek, Hebrew, Hungarian, Hindi, Khmer, Lao, Pasto, Tagalog, Thai, Turkish, Vietnamese, Xhosa, and Zulu.   

Category V languages take 88 weeks to complete.  A whopping 2200 hours.  These are Arabic, Mandarin Chinese, Cantonese Chinese, Japanese, and Korean.

To me it's interesting how both DLI and FSI sometimes have different opinions as to a language's difficulty.  DLI had German, Romanian, and Indonesian as equally difficult while FSI says Romanian is easier than German but German is easier than Indonesian.  Or how DLI has Pashto at the same difficulty level as Arabic or Chinese but FSI has Pashto at the same level as Czech.

Here's the FSI language difficulty map for Europe.

So how hard is Czech?  Pretty dang difficult!  Especially for a native-English speaker.  Though not the most difficult language out there.  In the end however it really doesn't matter.  As long as I pass my exam.

Update: I found some graduation numbers for DLI.

• Czech was taught from 1971-2002 and again in 2017.  The top year was 1985.  In total 3.420 people graduated from the Czech programme.  
• Slovak was taught from 1984-1986, 1991-1993, and in 1995.  Only 144 people completed Slovak.
• German was taught from 1965-2018 and 1986 was the top year.  German had 13.699 graduates.

Multiple Goodbyes

One thing that I've noticed about Czech and Slovak speakers is that, when it comes to ending a telephone call or video chat, they never just say "good-bye" once.  There are always multiple goodbyes.  Especially for an informal call, there's usually at least three different salutations given.

Of course, there's ahoj.  Some people say čau.  Many people say it twice - čau čau.  With my Slovaks, there's usually čauko.

With kids you'll often hear pa pa.

Nashle is a short, more casual version of na schledanou (good bye).

Zatím or tak zatím, is basically "until next time".

Měj se is pretty much "take care".

On a Friday, many people will wish you a nice weekend with hezký víkend.

Younger people may say čus which is the Czech version of tschüß which is the German version of ciao.

So at the end of a call you may hear something like "tak zatím...měj se...ahoj" or "hezký víkend...zatím...čau čau".  

One "good bye" is fine when it's face-to-face but there's usually three different versions when it's on the phone.  I've never really understood what's up with the multiple goodbyes but that's the way it is.

Czech Sign Language

Český znakový jazyk (ČZJ) is Czech Sign Language.  Czechland has its own sign language.  The Institute for the Deaf and Dumb in Prague opened in 1786.  It was the 5th such institution in Europe.

Every sign language has its own finger alphabet.  The Czech version is two-handed.  They have a sign for the accent marks.

There are around 10 000 people in the country that can use it.  Czech and Slovak are pretty much mutually understandable when spoken.  This does not carry over to sign language.  I'm told that Czech Sign Language isn't that close to Slovak Sign Language.  

Some Czech Sign Language Verbs

Hantec

Hantec is the local Brno dialect.  The language was most spoken amongst the lower classes in the 19th and early 20th centuries.  Very few, mostly older people, can actually speak proper Hantec.  Many Hantec words and phrases have worked their way speech of the locals. 

It's a mix of Czech, the local Moravian dialect, German, and Yiddish.  It's been described as an "unintelligible funny German-like and alien gibberish." I find it charming.

In the rest of the country a tram is tramvaj.  Here it is a šalina whcih comes from the German "elektrische Linie".  When I'm in Prague and say šalina instead of tramvaj they instantly know that I'm from Brno.  

The Brno city centre is called Štatl which comes from the Yiddish word shtetl. The  Brno Dam is called Prýgl, Česká street is called Čáró and the train station is Roló.

Here are a few more...

Augle is eyes and čočky are eyeglasses.  Ď is thanks.  Hokna is work.  Ká and love both mean money and kéma is friend.  Potatoes can be called krumple or erteple.  Gómat means to think. Čórka is a theft, šaškec is a madhouse and koc is a girl.  Metr doesn't mean metre, but month, so za dva metry actually means "in two months"; not in two metres.

Here's a link to an online Hantec dictionary.

Czech Dialects

There's a difference between formal, written Czech and colloquial spoken Czech.  Standard Czech is what you'll hear across the country on the nightly news.  However, everyday Czech is a bit different.  

Just as there are three distinct regions in Czechland there are three primary Czech dialects to be found.  There's a dialect spoken in Silesia, near the Polish border, that a mishmash of Czech and Polish.  The dialect is actually closer to Polish than it is to Czech.  That doesn't mean that people there can't, or don't, speak standard Czech but the accent can be tough to understand if you're not used to it.  It's been referred to as "unintelligible funny Polish-like gibberish."

The most widely used spoken Czech is the variety found in Bohemia.  There are some grammatical differences from standard Czech.  There are also some pronunciation differences where Bohemians have more open vowel sounds than Moravians, especially in Prague.

In "Bohemian" -ý becomes -ej and -é becomes -ý.  The word dobrý (good) becomes dobrej  and dobré becomes dobrý.  Given the seven Czech cases there are more words to keep up with.

The declension of můj (my) gets changed from: mého to mýho, mému to mýmu, mé to mý, mém to mým, mých to mejch, mým to mejm, and mými to mejma.

The declension of dobrý changes word forms from: dobrý to dobrej, dobré to dobrý, dobrého to dobrýho, dobrému to dobrýmu, dobrém to dobrým, dobrých to dobrejch, dobrým to dobrejm, dobří to dobrý, and dobrými to dobrejma.

In Bohemia they don't really follow the rules for the 7th (Instrumental) case when it comes to plural words.  They just use -ama or -ma for everything.  So hranokly (French fries) becomes hranolkama, brambory (potatoes) becomes bramborama, and auty (cars) becomes autama.

In Bohemia, then tend to put a "v" sound before words that start with "o".  Okno (window) becomes vokno, oko (eye) becomes voko, omáčka (sauce) becomes vomáčka, ostrý (sharp) becomes vostrej, ospalý (sleepy) becomes vospalej...

Moravians don't do any of this.  Another thing that distinguishes people from Prague is that when they speak it is kind of singsongy.

I'm told that Moravians speak better proper Czech than Bohemians do.  However, Moravia has more local dialects.  And Moravians for sure don't sing when they speak.  

The biggest pronunciation differences in the Moravian dialect are:

-í/ý becomes é.  The word for "mill" in Czech is mlýn but becomes mlén.

-y becomes e.  The plural world for "fish" is ryby but it becomes rebe.

-the diphthong ou becomes ú.  The world for "flour" is mouka but it becomes múka.

In Czech, "I am" is já jsem but in Morava you'll hear já su.  "I want" is chci but you'll often hear people say chcu.  

There's some different vocabulary used in Moravia.  

In Brno, we have our own dialect called Hantec.  It's a mixture of standard Czech, the Moravian dialect, German and Yiddish.  Hantec is spoken mostly by older people but many Hantec words are used by everyone in everyday conversation.  Šalina is the most well known word.  It means "tram" but the rest of the country uses the world tramvaj.  When I'm in Prague and say "šalina" people instantly know that I'm from Brno.